State Aid E-Scene

Newly Updated State Aid Bridge Website

(pg. 1)

LRIP Update and Solicitation (pg. 2)

Bridge Bonding Review (pg. 2)

DCP Checklist and Partial Payment

Request Update (pg. 2)

Schedule for Rule Changes for

Mandatory EAW Categories (pg. 3)

Issue Number 86, December 2018

DCP Checklist Updates (pg. 3)

$5.3 Million for Off-System Bridge Projects

(pg. 3)

Employee News (pg. 4)

SAPR Revision (pg. 4)

Page 1

Over the past few years, the State Aid

Bridge Office has been updating their

webpage to better serve local bridge

owners, consultants, and highway us-

ers. We have, with the help from SALT,

provided a new Tools webpage contain-

ing links to various tools designed to

assist our customers. One helpful tool is

an A,B,C Overweight Permit Truck Clas-

sification Calculator which will help local

bridge owners with overweight permit

evaluation. Another helpful tool is a new

local bridge replacement and improve-

ment management program to assist

bridge owners in prioritizing local bridg-

es for repair, rehabilitation or replace-

ment. Also added was a Box Culvert

Length Calculator tool.

We also added an extensive Load Rat-

ing webpage to assist our customers

with the various processes to review

overweight permit requests for single or

annual permits. These processes are

explained with easy to follow

flowcharts. Additionally on this page you

will find a bridge load rating, posting

and permitting training module, a bridge

load posting brochure, etc. Other areas

updated include, more recent project

photos, such as the award winning St

Anthony Parkway Bridge over the

BNSF rail yard in Minneapolis and the

Franklin Avenue Bridge over the Missis-

sippi River in Hennepin County. The

Resources webpage was also over-

hauled to update areas regarding local

bridge hydraulics, superstructure and

substructure selection, bridge barriers

and guardrails, etc.

The website continues to house the

State Aid Bridge Newsletters, where

they now have a dedicated tab on the

top navigation bar. Newsletters are

cataloged by month/ year (back to July

2002) and the webpage now includes a

list of topics covered in each newsletter.

We encourage you to review the news-

letters, they are full of good local bridge

information with interactive links for

more detailed information. I would also

Newly Updated State Aid Bridge Website

like to thank the State Aid Bridge staff

— Steve Brown, Brian Homan and

Moises Dimaculangan for their dedicat-

ed work to improve this website. A spe-

cial thanks goes out to Alyssa Ru-

benstrunk in the SALT Office for her

great work as the website architect and

make sure the information was present-

ed consistent with the other State Aid

websites, and to assure the website

was easy to use and appealing for its

dedicated and casual users.

If you have any comments or feedback,

please contact Dave Conkel at

dave.conkel@state.mn.us.

Page 2

LRIP Update and Solicitation

In our June E-Scene we announced that

the 2018 Minnesota legislature appropri-

ated $78.6 million for the Local Road

Improvement Program (LRIP). Of this,

$43.6 million was appropriated for spe-

cific projects earmarked by the legisla-

ture and $35 million was available for

undesignated local projects. The LRIP

advisory committee recommended the

entire $35 million be appropriated by the

2018 legislature be selected from the

unfunded 2017 solicitation list of pro-

jects. In October the advisory committee

approved 52 projects to receive the $35

million. The selected project list can

found on the LRIP webpage.

In addition, a 2019 solicitation will open

on December 17, 2018. At this time,

there is NO available funding.

The LRIP advisory committee encour-

ages cities, counties and townships

who have projects to submit an appli-

cation for potential future funding. The

committee will use the data from the

submitted applications to create a new

list of projects to give to legislators

where it will help demonstrate the

need for continued support and fund-

ing for the program. Applications must

be completed and submitted to

SALT by March 1, 2019. The appli-

cation and guidance on the LRIP so-

licitation are available on the LRIP

webpage.

For more information, contact Patti

Loken at patti.loken@state.mn.us or

651-366-3803.

DCP Checklist and Partial Payment Request Update

Earlier this year, one the counties re-

ceived an audit finding because they

did not follow the DCP Checklist and

didn’t have their contractor sign the

partial payment voucher processed by

the county. After reviewing our require-

ments for DCP Partial Payment Re-

quests, we found that Trunk Highway

does not require a signature by the

contractor because Spec 1906.1 for

partial payments states:

“The contractor’s acceptance of the

partial payment constitutes a certifica-

tion by the contractor that the work cov-

ered by the partial payment meets the

contract requirements.”

If your county attorney requires this

signature, continue to have the con-

tractor sign or have a waiver on file, but

In 2017, the Local Bridge Replace-

ment Program (LBRP) received $49.2

million. The funds were broken into

three legislative earmarks: $31.8 mil-

lion was appropriated to the city of

Minneapolis for the 10th Avenue his-

toric bridge rehabilitation, $800,000

was appropriated to the small city of

Malone for the replacement of the

Malone Island Bridge, and the remain-

ing $16.5 million was undesignated

bridge bond funds for the replacement

of local bridges – which funded 80

local bridges.

This same year, the legislature created

a new local bridge account. The ac-

count was derived from 13 percent of

the Motor Vehicle Tax revenue that

become available in August 2018 and

is called LBRP DED TAX. This ac-

count is not considered bond funds,

but still requires the execution of a

grant agreement by a local agency. In

2018, under this account, $12.5 million

was available, and has funded 32 pro-

jects to date.

During the 2018 legislative session,

the legislature appropriated $5 million

for the LBRP and has funded 21 pro-

jects. Lastly, the Town Bridge Program

funded 43 bridges, utilizing $12.2 mil-

lion of town bridge funds.

Bridge Bonding Review

for our process we do not require it.

The DCP Checklist, 3-23 has been

revised as follows.

3-23 LPA prepares Partial Estimate

at least monthly

Must be in engineer’s estimate

format; showing breakdown for

each category/group.

Certified by Project Engineer &

Contractor (Per Spec 1906.1 the

acceptance of the payment

constitutes certification by the

Contractor)

We have removed the requirement

from the DCP Partial Payment Re-

quest in FCRB (Federal County Road

& Bridge).

Page 3

DCP Checklist Updates

The 2017 federal project audit resulted in

a few revisions to the DCP Checklist that

you should know about.

When a city or county hires a consultant

to administer a construction project, the

Delegated Contract Agreement (DCP)

requires that the agency assigns an em-

ployee to be in responsible charge of the

project, namely to manage financial

transactions associated with the project,

on behalf of the agency. The DCP 05

form (Post-Award Documentation -

DSAE (DCP 05) (Word) linked in section

2-21 identifies either the local agency

engineer or the specific consultant engi-

neer (by name) who will administer the

construction, and if the project is admin-

istered by a consultant, then an agency

employee must be named who will be in

responsible charge of the contract.

Section 2-19 links a new Civil Rights

Contract Clearance Flowchart (PDF)

developed to help you and the contractor

tor negotiate the myriad steps and re-

ports required by statute and federal

regulations in the DBE and EEO provi-

sions. Many contractors are familiar

with them, but it is better to be proactive

in getting docs to the Office of Civil

Rights during construction, than to go

back and look for them at the conclu-

sion of a project.

Section 2-24 has eliminated the dupli-

cative submittal of the bid docs to the

DSAE after the project is awarded. The

DCP 08 which includes them need only

be submitted as indicated on the appro-

priate DCP 08 form for metro (Word) or

greater MN (Word) projects.

Lastly, section 4-8 on DCP final pay-

ment request for federal projects now

includes an evaluation form for consult-

ants (Evaluation for Consultants Admin-

istering Federal Project Construction

(PDF)) that administer federal construc-

tion contracts.

Schedule for Rule Changes for Mandatory EAW Categories

changing this rule for Mandatory Envi-

ronmental Assessment Worksheets

(EAW).

The public comment period opened No-

vember 13 and will close on January 7,

2019. The reason for these rule chang-

es was a legislative request in 2016 to

streamline the process and require-

ments. This point is important as you

develop a message to share with your

politicians about the additional time,

funding, and staff resources that would

needed for these additional EAW’s. If 25

persons or more submit a written re-

quest for a hearing on the rules by 4:30

on January 7, 2019, the EQB will hold

two public hearings. If they DO NOT

receive 25 letters, the hearing will not

be held and the rules will be adopted

as is.

Further details can be found on the MN

EQB Mandatory Categories Rulemak-

ing webpage. State Aid’s summary of

the changes can be found here (PDF).

By: Gary Reihl, Federal Aid Project Development

You may be aware there have been dis-

cussions over the last few years about

the Environmental Quality Board (EQB)

modifying their rules. In 2016, the EQB

considered rule making changes for

mandatory EAW categories, one change

they considered was Mn Rule Chapter

4410.4300 , Subpart 22, Item B: An EAW

is required “For construction of additional

through lanes or passing lanes on an

existing road for a length of two or more

miles.” This is a change from the current

rule of one mile. The Environmental

Quality Board (EQB) is proposing

MnDOT State Aid is now accepting

applications for local off-system bridge

projects. Approximately $5.3 million in

federal funds is available to local

agencies for eligible off-system bridge

projects to be constructed in

2023. The federal funds may cover up

to 80 percent of the eligible costs of a

bridge improvement or replacement

project. Local agencies are responsi-

ble for the 20 percent local match and

any costs not eligible for the federal

funds. More information on the pro-

gram can be found here (PDF).

The bridge funding application is due

to your DSAE by January 21, 2019

and is located under the “Forms”

header on the State Aid LBRP

webpage. If you have any questions

contact Patti Loken at 651-366-3803

or patti.loken@state.mn.us.

$5.3 Million for Off-System Bridge Projects

Page 4

395 John Ireland Blvd MS500

St. Paul, MN 55155

mndot.gov/stateaid

Employee News

Rex Bordson, District 1 DSAA retired

on December 11th from MnDOT. Rex

worked for MnDOT for over 34 years

and the last 15 with State Aid. We

wish Rex well in his retirement and

thank him for his many years of ser-

vice to MnDOT and our local partners.

Jeff Madill has taken over as District 1

DSAA. Prior coming to State Aid, Jeff

worked in MnDOT Duluth Project De-

velopment in multiple roles for almost

20 years. He also graduated from

Lake Superior College in Duluth. Jeff’s

contact information can be found on

the SALT District Contact webpage.

We have brought back a familiar face

to State Aid. Loren Hill rejoined the

team in August. Loren retired in 2009

after 34 years with MnDOT working in

traffic safety and pavement manage-

ment. Since retiring, he has worked

part-time for CH2M Hill and Stone-

brooke Engineering for the past eight

years. Loren was brought back to as-

sist in the design of the new MnCMAT

program, as well as providing crash

data to locals. He has extensive expe-

rience with and passion for crash data

and both the state and national level.

Loren can be reached at 651-366-

3808 or loren.hill@state.mn.us.

Mohamed Farah has accepted the

State Aid Federal Aid Program Admin-

istrator position. Mohamed brings sev-

en years of success driving innovation

and growth in highly visible service-

oriented settings through the applica-

tion of financial management exper-

tise, including: financial analysis, fore-

casting/budgeting, reconciliation,

month-end closing, payroll and invest-

ments. He has studied Accounting and

Business Administration at North

Hennepin Community College and

Metropolitan State University. Moham-

ed’s contact information can be found

on the SAF Contact Us webpage.

Ann McLellan has accepted a perma-

nent position in the Office of Mainte-

nance as the director of Financial and

Support Services. We wish Ann well in

her new position and thank her for time

in State Aid. In addition, Cindy Degen-

er will continue serving as acting State

Aid Accounting Supervisor.

There has been a minor change made

to the State Aid Payment Request

(SAPR) to clear up the certification

language.

I certify that: (a) has been changed to

read: Engineering & ROW costs re-

quested above are a reimbursement

for costs incurred. ROW may be

based on a percentage of estimated

parcel appraisals until final.

As always, make sure to use the latest

forms on our website.

SAPR Revision